The invention relates to a method for operating a valve device for supplying compressed air to a compressed air consumer. The invention further relates to a valve device for operating a compressed air consumer and to a data storage medium with a computer programme for storage in a processing device of a valve device.
According to prior art known to the applicant but not recorded in a printed publication, it is provided in a method for supplying compressed air to a compressed air consumer that a position of a movable component, e.g. of an operating piston of a pneumatic cylinder, along a movement path is determined with the aid of a position sensing system and that a position signal provided by the position sensing system is made available to a processing device, where the position signal is processed, for example in order to obtain from an absolute value of the position signal and/or from a change of the position signal over time at least one information about a movement of the movable component of the compressed air consumer. This information is then used to control a valve assembly assigned to the processing device in order to influence a fluid flow into an operating chamber or out of an operating chamber of the compressed air consumer in such a way that the movable component of the compressed air consumer can be moved to a preset position along the movement path and/or moved at a preset speed along the movement path. On the basis of the position signal of the position sensing system, a valve position of a valve assembly can therefore be controlled in an open or closed loop. In this process, the change of the valve position results, as a function of the pressure conditions at the compressed air consumer and at a compressed air source, in different volumetric fluid flow rates to the compressed air consumer; these are indirectly detected by the processing device via the position signal of the position sensing system and lead to a further adjustment of the valve position.